North Korean leader asks military to hasten war preparations over US ‘confrontations’

Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, has ordered the country’s military to accelerate war preparations to repel confrontations from the United States.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report on Thursday, Jong Un spoke at the second-day sitting of the 9th plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

Jong Un who is also the party’s general secretary, said the preparations are necessary to counter what he called coordinated unprecedented confrontation moves from the US and its vassal forces.

“He clarified the independent principle of the WPK to expand and develop the relations of strategic cooperation with the anti-imperialist independent countries and dynamically wage the anti-imperialist joint action and struggle on an international scale under the rapidly changing world geo-political situation and indicated the orientation of the external affairs and the work towards the south,” KCNA added.

North Korea views the US as a nation which tries to invade other countries on the pretext of establishing peace.

At an anti-US rally in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, this year, people carried placards with the slogan: “The imperialist US is the destroyer of peace”.

As part of Jong Un’s efforts to deepen cooperation with anti-imperialist countries, the Asian leader has strengthened ties with Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart.

In September, the North Korean leader made a rare trip outside his country to meet Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a space centre in Russia, where Putin said Moscow would help Pyongyang to build satellites.

The meeting took place amid concerns Pyongyang was supplying military equipment to Moscow for use in its war in Ukraine in exchange for Russian technological know-how.

Jong Un said the meeting propelled Russia into North Korea’s “first priority”, assuring that the Asian country would support the Kremlin in its fight against ruling forces.

Meanwhile, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol earlier visited a frontline military unit in the eastern county of Yeoncheon to inspect its defence and ordered an immediate retaliation if there was any provocation from North Korea.